First the news is horrific. I pray that I'll never even.to understand thus pain. I have been praying for the shooter and his family. I can't imagine what they must thinking The older boy lost not only his mom but his younger brother. I'm sure all kinds of feelings are flying about. Plus there has been so many wrong stories out there too. Because of the anger and fear people tend to forget or not want to pray for the shooter and his family. That has to be horrific.

I thought about the Christmas presents too. My thinking would be how painful it would be to even look at the presents. I'd guess different families will each handle it in their Own way, some may give them to other kids, or store them. Some may need to return them because they'll need money. If any of the adults had kids they may give some to them. It's a tiny detail, but those little things can seem huge. When I was working at hospital and walked into a code as a nurse and discovered it was my grandfather I freaked over silly things like I was still punched in but couldn't work in that state.

Just came in from walking dog and I fell hard (Thanks for sharing spills with me Laura) I think my thumb is broken maybe my wrist. Plus I have wood burn all over. Play on words rug burn but I fell on wood pile and it's firewood whose job it is to burn. Even in pain I'm funny.

Glad to see ya out my friend Laura. Becky and I miss everyone. Pup comes out to bark every now and then too but I want everyone to come ply. Kara and I texted earlier. she's pretty busy. I haven't even been in FB because someone in Asia tried to hark it so I had to change password and things won't load. So if I play Words with anyone I'm not ignoring you it's just PC hates me.

Oh you're so funny ya ole goat! I have my net book so I can write with stylus cuz I am all banged up. Plus the computer hates me and conspires against me by Changing words Your aliens are probably helping the wretched machines. And you come out to pick on me. And I am NOT older than you. You have at least a year or two on me unless you graduated from high school when you were 15

Had to respond to your post, Shann. First of all, I felt for you when I read you had fallen. That is terrible. I do hope and will be praying that neither the thumb nor wrist are broken. After two falls in three months, I have a terrible fear of falling now.

On the Connecticut massacre, I think the example I want to follow is that of one of the father's of a little girl who was killed. He has a forgiving heart and when he spoke, he said he couldn't imagine what the family of the shooter must be going through. Now, that is a forgiving spirit!!! The other thing I like to look at is that at the age of these children, I believe they immediately walked into the arms of Jesus and for that, I can have some solace.

Wow, you guys have been quiet. I came back expecting pages and pages and there's only like one page. I wasn't abandoning you guys, just fighting for my life. Or at least that's what it felt like. I've had the flu for like eight days now. I'm much better but still not feeling great.

The weird thing is that I had to go off my sleep med and pain med for the sleep study, and the same night I went without them for the first time, I came down with the flu. I abruptly switched then from hypersomnia to insomnia. Nothing like being horribly, miserably sick and not even being able to zone out asleep for more than 30 min at a time. I'm guessing it was the fever... things are slowly getting better but I'm still not sleeping normally.

My sleep study was scheduled for this Tues night and Wednesday but got cancelled (funny, they didn't want my bug) and now it's for right after Christmas. I'm still a little afraid things will be odd still, but hopefully it won't mess up the test too much. Good news is that Medicare is supposed to cover the cost fully, and will even work retroactively if it doesn't come through before then.

Last Saturday I had a fun thing that helped distract me a little from feeling so horrible. Andy (my boyfriend--that still feels funny to say, heh) has a Carol Sing party every year before Christmas. He used to sing in operas and professional quartets and such. A bunch of friends and family come over and sing together. So he set up a webcam so I and a few of our other friends (Jay popped in, too) could watch. I couldn't sing along much without coughing, but it was lots of fun.

My dad had off work since last Saturday and went back to work today. My mom came home from work last night and said her boss gave her today off with pay. So now my Mom won't be going back to work until next Thursday. We're planning on shopping tomorrow for groceries and last minute gifts and Sunday we have church and my Uncle's house for Christmas which is about an hour away.

We're not doing anything on Christmas eve I don't think but Christmas day we're going to my Brother and sister-in-law's house.

Oh and my 6 yr old niece has been complaining of headaches and knee pain lately and because her cousins have Chiari and Ehlers danlos and because it's genetic the doctor wanted to get xrays to make sure everything was okay and if she keeps complaining about the pain they're going to test her for both of those diseases.

Hey all glad to see a little more action on the boards. I agree with Becky I miss people. I do understand that others have actual lifes (I know it should be lives but then it sounds like a verb instead of a noun)

So I'm still sore since Pup sicced his aliens on me. I'm not moving around too much as I'm sore everywhere. After some ice the swelling went down in my hand. The right one hurt the most yesterday but today my left side hurts more. I wonder if I bruised the rib cage pretty good cuz it hurts to breath but I'm taking all the advice I gave Laura (except going to the doctor--I'm as stubborn as the old goat and the young goat on that and I'm not saying who the young goat is but Becky you know who I mean! )

I've been getting a lot of packages since I order most of the presents on line. Well I've found some great use for the big bubble wrap where the bubbles are about three inches long. Thankfully I got a lot because I had two boxes where the actual thing inside would have fit in a shoe box but they had to back in a 2 foot square box and the other one was probably 18 inches and is square too not that the inches and feet are squared but the boxes are square shaped. Do you still miss me when I don't get on?

As usual I digress--so anyhoo--I have miles and miles of this big bubble wrap but it hurts to move and even to lie in bed so I took the bubble wrap and put it under the sheets. I haven't popped one bubble yet and it cushions me but still gives support. I wonder if it would be cheaper to just go to the packing store every couple of weeks and buy bubble wrap instead of the air bed thingy I want oh what is it called sleep comfort?

Mylee and Phin might pop them since Mylee has extra toes in the front and has to knead everything. Phin just bounces about like mad. Plus if I hurt too much to get up and pee I have the bonus attraction that the bubble wrap would protect the mattress! It does sound like I'm sleeping on rubber sheets but as long as I'm comfy I don't care.

Oh I have so much stuff to do but I think I'm going to check just a couple of things and then go back to my bubble-wrapped bed.

I'm glad you all came back...it was too quiet in here. I popped in on my nights off but there wasn't much being said and I didn't want to be in here by myself so I kept mum.

Thought about you and your aliens, Pup. Sorry, they must have missed the memo.

We had a progressive dinner with our small group tonight. I was SO HAPPY to be able to host a small party tonight - it started at our place with appetizers. I totally went overboard...made cheeseless fondue (from my Ultimate Uncheese recipe book) with roasted veggies and focaccia bread for dipping, deviled eggs, fresh salsa and guacamole with chips, hummus and baba ghanoush with pita chips. The good news is we get the leftovers, and I work the next three nights. Then we went to our pastor's house for ham & potatoes & veggies & rolls, and opened our presents (each couple bought another couple a present). Then we went to another house for dessert, and played a dice game called LCR which involved putting three dollars in for the game and winner takes all. I forgot about it, and we don't have cash, but two guys each gave us three bucks to play, and I won! We returned the dollars to the guys who lent us the money, and now we have a stack of dollars. I was happy about winning, since I'd felt a little guilty for forgetting to bring cash.

I had a very long night last night; had an all-natural patient who pushed for over three hours and pretty much would have been a section if she hadn't been so close to delivered all night and insistent about no C-section. Of course the baby was malpositioned, but she got it out at the end of my shift just as the new nurse was coming on. I had to stay late and chart, and was sooooo tired, but I'm glad she had the delivery she wanted. Definitely is worth all the work when they are happy.

On the next three, although I'm half expecting a standby for one of them - as long as it's not Christmas Eve. HOLIDAY PAY. Don't want to miss out on that.

Sorry about your fall, Shann. I didn't have a comment on my WC entry, so I figured you must be out of commission. Hope you feel better soon and that the bubble wrap continues to cushion you.

Sorry also about your flu, Amy! I haven't received a flu shot in the last few years (thankfully I live in states that don't mandate them for healthcare workers) and I just dose up on vitamins like crazy and drug myself to sleep, so I haven't been as sick the last few winters. But I definitely recommend them for people with weaker immune systems. I can't imagine being knocked down like that. I used to, when I slept poorly and ate regular food and a lot of fast food, but now I'm an organic food snob and I make a point to sleep well. Other than my bad back, I don't have a bunch of health issues. Quitting milk products, as hard as it is, has made a significant difference and I have no motivation to ever go back. Hope you feel better soon and have a nice Christmas.

Becky, please don't leave. We may be AWOL at times, but we're a chatty bunch who will always come back and care for our own. I finally abandoned my fish application on my phone, so they're probably all floating upside down now, but I pop back in here as often as I have some time off. I really like having Ryan home now because I finally feel like we have a good routine. On my nights off I can do my online stuff as soon as he goes to bed. I love all of you and wouldn't want to see anyone go. Even Holly peeked in one time, remember?

I hope everyone has a nice Christmas. Not sure if I'll get a chance to come back until Christmas Day night. We don't visit family until after Christmas anymore since inevitably I work. But a MERRY CHRISTMAS to my online family, the PCRS!

When I was in the women's shelter, volunteers would come about once a month and play Left-Right Center (LRC), but we played it a little differently. The volunteers would bring in some dollar bills, and bags of fun-size candy. They would put a dollar bill into each basket--one per group of players--and each player would be given three pieces of candy. If you rolled a left, the person on your left gave you a piece of candy; a roll of a right would get you a piece from the person on your right, and a center meant you put a piece of candy in the basket. A roll of the black dot meant no taking/giving of candy. Winner is the person with the most candy at the end; players drop out when they run out of candy. Winner got the candy and the dollar in the basket. I won several times. I guess it's like the driedel game played by kids during Hannukah.

That sounds cool deejay. I've never heard of it before well I think maybe I've heard of the dice game but didn't know how it worked. I've been meaning to ask you a question and now that you've been popping in on a regular basis I tend to lose my politeness but don't worry I won't ask you if you have your underwear match your clothes like I do. So where does the DeeJay come from and what does it mean?

Leah glad you've been busy. I really wish I could get back into OB. I miss it so much. I never liked it when I had to float to another unit (do you do that?) The ER and ICU were the worst. After I got sick they didn't make me as much because my immune system isn't the best. Once they had a scabies outbreak on the floors and everyone else in OB had to go over and they wouldn't let me which was just fine with me but the other nurses didn't like it. I hope when my daughters have babies they'll let me be in the room with them. I'm sure even after all these years I could pick up a late decel (maybe even better than some of the nurses there insert rolling eyes smilie)

Becky sounds like you have a nice Christmas planned. I've been having a hard time because there are so many changes and I want things to still be like they were but you reminded (well Lyd did too but you did it in a nicer way) that it is about family. I need to wrap presents but I'm just so achy still. I might resort to Christmas bags this year. I'm pretty sure I know what my husband is getting me. Up until a few days ago I had no clue and usually I know what everyone is getting me so it's kind of a bummer but I received an email about my new tablet. (He must have loaded it for me because I'm not super patient with stuff like that.)

Well at least you can reknit it. That's something I've always wanted to do that. I thought about getting a knitting machine. People have told me it doesn't work very well.

Also I'm so surprised that neither you nor Pup commented on my comment about the young goat and old goat. i figured at least one of you would have a hysterical comment about me lumping you both into the same species